WATERWISE
Co-designing sustainable management solutions for resilient Alpine headwaters
Climate change and human pressures are having an increasing impact on alpine waters, the main sources of freshwater in the Alpine Space. Significant alterations in water availability and quality pose significant challenges to Alpine communities and have profound implications for the ecosystem services on which they depend.
WATERWISE involves 12 project partners from France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. This project aims to harness recent advances in modeling techniques designed to assess freshwater vulnerability to climate and land-use change, and make them accessible to local managers. Through collaboration between scientists, communities and managers, an innovative digital toolbox will be co-designed and tested at seven pilot sites across the Alps, including the Réchy valley. This toolbox will facilitate the collection, analysis and visualization of climatic and ecohydrological data, while enabling the assessment of water vulnerability.
The project will provide local stakeholders with the scientific basis needed to co-design robust, participatory management strategies, thereby enhancing the resilience of water resources, ecosystems and communities. Combined with educational materials, creative storytelling and public awareness events, WATERWISE results will raise awareness among alpine communities of the vulnerability of water ecosystem services. WATERWISE will strengthen the dialogue between scientific experts and political decision-makers, and stimulate the joint development of transnational solutions to secure water resources in Alpine regions.
As a partner in the project, CREALP, supported by the Environment Department of the Canton of Valais and the Swiss Confederation, will play an active role at the Réchy pilot site to improve understanding of its hydrological and hydrogeological functioning and its evolution in the context of climate change. Historical data from this watershed will be exploited, and environmental monitoring of the site will be continued and improved. The project will be carried out in close collaboration with the communes of Valais, which depend on water from this valley for irrigation and drinking water.
